1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to structural-members of musical instruments such as a plucked string musical instrument, an arco string musical instrument and a keyboard musical instrument and to a method of manufacturing such structural members.
2. Description of the Related Art
It was customary to use a plate of precious wood such as maple, beech wood or mahogany for forming the body of any of various stringed musical instruments and acoustic pianos. The body formed of a plate of precious wood exemplified above exhibits satisfactory musical properties and a high mechanical strength. In addition, a plate of the precious wood is suitable to be used as a sound board because it highly resonates with vibration of the strings. However, it is laborious to work the precious wood into a desired shape. In the manufacture of, for example, an electric guitar, a body member having a predetermined planar shape is prepared first, followed by imparting a complex curved shape to the side surface of the body member. Further, the upper surface of the body member must be provided with a recess for coupling with a neck, an opening for mounting a bridge base and another opening for mounting electronic parts.
What should also be noted is that natural wood comprises soft portions and hard portions (growth ring portions). Naturally, the soft portion tends to shrink greatly over a relatively long period of time, compared with the hard portion, with the result that a smooth surface of the body portion, if formed of a single piece of wood, tends to be roughened with time. Where a decorative plate is bonded to the smooth surface of the body portion, the decorative plate is also deformed by the deformation of the smooth surface of the body portion. Thus, the appearance of the body portion is impaired. Where the surface of the body portion is further roughened so that the depth of the dent becomes larger, the decorative plate tends to be peeled from the body portion or tends to be cracked. The cracking of the decorative plate is caused by a large difference in a coefficient of shrinkage between the material of the body portion and the material of the decorative plate. Further, the openings, formed in the body portion, for mounting electronic parts, etc. are deformed with time so that the size of the opening is changed with time.
An idea of using a fiber-reinforced resin or a special synthetic resin for forming the body portion of a musical instrument is disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,880,040; 4,192,213; 3,427,915; 3,618,442; and 3,664,911. The use of such a resin is certainly effective for overcoming the above-noted problems inherent in the use of a single piece of wood for forming the body portion of a musical instrument, but is highly expensive.